#14 Men's Lacrosse @ #8 Hopkins, Noon, **on the U**
#14 Michigan travels Baltimore to take on the #8 Johns Hopkins Blue Jays at noon today. The game will air on ESPNU. Michigan’s season got a shot in the arm last week with a tough win over Maryland (their 3rd in a row!) to keep Re-Tourneyquest Part II: The Sequel alive. A win today would be huge for their postseason chances. Coach Conry and Coach Tinney would love the opportunity to knock off their alma mater.
https://twitter.com/UMichLacrosse/status/1771635534802137108
I haven’t spoken much about the individual seasons some Michigan players are having this year and a few guys had monster performances last week. We should talk about Justin Tiernan, who is currently leading the country in goals(!) with 37. Tiernan is a classic crease attackman who is just a pure shooter, an artist. While the rest of the team has struggled, he has hit the cage with efficiency, tallying 4 Gs against ND and 5 against Maryland, including the game winner above. On that play, he comes out of a ground ball melee (thanks to checks by Cohen and Boehm), scoops it up and angles right to the cage with a defender bearing down on him. He uses his body to protect the stick, finishes high and draws the flag. If Tiernan can keep ahead of UVA’s Cormier and a few Duke guys, he could win the scoring title. He’s also on the watch list for the Tewaaraton (lacrosse Heisman). Now, if Michigan could get everyone else’s shooting to come along…
Goalie Hunter Taylor had a huge bounce back game last week. After probably the worst performance of his career at Notre Dame, he came up with some big saves down the stretch against the Terps. He also had an extremely gutsy ground ball and clear that led to a Michigan goal.
Justin Wietfeldt is quietly having another excellent season and he’s now 11th nationally in faceoff percentage and last week won his matchup against Luke Wierman who is one of the all-time greats at the position. Princeton xfer Cathal Roberts is my kind of defender: A big Irish lad, lefty, who throws checks and generally plays kind of angry. He’s currently T-16th in caused turnovers. The rest of the team seems to be coming together as well but Hopkins is a big test.
Hopkins is a strong if not spectacular team. They’re well-coached and always seem to do everything well. The Jays are absolutely loaded with seniors who have been there since the beginning of time, goalie Chayse Ierlan and sharpshooters Garrett Degnon, Russell Melendez and Jacob Angelus. This team is kind of a mystery though: they started the season by cruising to a comfortable lead over a good Denver team, only to blow a 5-goal 4th quarter advantage and lose in overtime. Then they got things back on track with solid Ws over Georgetown and UNC and an upset of Virginia. Then they lost an OT thriller to Syracuse in the dome (understandable) and dropped a game to archrival-but-kinda-meh Navy team (less understandable). So, in conclusion, Johns Hopkins is a land of contrast.
Should be a great game. GO BLUE!!!
Def running out of Simpsons bits but I’m determined to keep ‘em going.
Already posted on the board but also #2 women host #1 Maryland at 12:30 on BTN. Two screen situation!
Fuck Johns Hopkins
Hopkins is a good school - unique - and, in a very interesting area of Baltimore.
My son camped there prior to enrolling at Michigan. Some crazy stories about our visit - I'll never forget.
Go Blue!
Disagree. But let’s win nonetheless.
March 30th, 2024 at 12:30 PM ^
Agree to disagree, may they all rot in hell
Yeah that’s evil
You should probably know some of us are Blue Jays, too, and I don't appreciate being told to rot in hell over an experiment conducted decades ago by people I've never met and will never meet.
March 30th, 2024 at 10:57 AM ^
Roughly what ranking do we need to secure an at large bid? Or do we have to win the BTT like last year?
March 30th, 2024 at 12:05 PM ^
15-11 Hopkins. Michigan started hot, especially on FOs. Lots of turnovers. Hopkins pulled away in the 2nd half and we couldn't get back in it once we started losing all the FOs again. Pretty clean game though.
Here's how it went.
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Q1
Interesting unis with the stripes on the sleeves.
JHU with olé defense, 1-0 M.
And Jays strike back, get on the doorstep with a dodge. 1-1.
Hopkins goalie beaten high again. 2-1.
Great feed behind the net to Tiernan in front of the net, beats goalie high again. 3-1.
What? Cross crease pass with a low to low finish that bounced out, didn't know it went in at first. 4-1!
Hopkins with some tic-tac-toe (is what Quint would say if he were there) transition goal. 4-2.
M wins the faceoff again but we just got a push in the back. EMO to JHU, 30 seconds. And beaten high to high. Actually, more midsection, left side, too good. 4-3, but another FO win.
Tried too many extra passes at the end of the quarter. Didn't get off a shot and then didn't have possession at the horn. Dominated time of possession in the game (I think we've won every FO) but the transition goal and the EMO keep it close at the end of Q1, 4-3.
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Q2
Ugh. Tiernan gets another great feed and is stoned.
JHU EMO, doesn't back up the shot, but gets it back on the ride. Full strength.
Another turnover on the ride, Hopkins scores in transition. We can't clear the ball all of a sudden. 4-4. And lost the FO!
Struggled to keep possession for a minute there but we did. Crease man Tiernan high to high finish. Then a FO win fastbreak goal for Boehm! 6-4 in the blink of an eye! And another FO win. LFG!
Oh no, Tiernan hits pipe and it...goes nowhere? Hopkins down the other end with a bad shot but backed it up. And a dodge from behind the crease to get in front, goal. 6-5.
Uuuuuuugggggghhhhh. BTB goal. Golf clap. 6-6.
And M caught ball watching and Hopkins with their first lead. 7-6.
FO violation, 3rd one. To box...EMO...goal. Smh. 8-6 JHU. The whole feeling of this game is completely different now.
(Women went down 2-0 but tied 2-2. End of 1.)
M goes man up, converts. 8-7 Hopkins.
JHU moving pick, we are trying to hold for basically the last shot of the half. Aaaaaand Hopkins smothered that play. 8-7 Hopkins at half.
We controlled a lot of the game with the faceoffs but that late run by Hopkins had us reeling. Fortunately it slowed down and we got one back. Very good, entertaining half.
(Women up 3-2 in the middle of the 2nd.)
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Q3
Lost the ball trying to pass from behind the net with the JHU longstick poking the ball away which is happened a couple times. Then JHU takes a feed in front and goes high to low, Hunter was completely fooled. 9-7 JHU. And they get it back on the FO.
And a stinger high...10-7 Jays. Need to stop the bleeding soon. But JHU FO win.
Hopkins can just stick check us at will now and cause turnovers. Terrible. Long, long possession for Jays finally ends with another Taylor save. Slowly clearing the ball...settled offense. Keep trying to start from up top, finally go behind the net, turnaround shot (question mark dodge, haven't heard that one before)...easy save. Back to JHU.
Oh my god. Had a free play with the penalty. Tiernan picked up a rebound in front of the net and missed high Ugh. But man up.
Blah. Bad angle shot. Got the ball back but clock almost ran out...ALMOST! Same tough angle, this time it converts, 5 hole. 10-8 Hopkins.
(Women up 5-3 early third.)
Slow bounce shot somehow fools Taylor, 11-8 and JHU ball again. The FO advantage is gone.
Hopkins offsides, man up with 4.4 seconds left. We'll hold it to start with the ball in the 4th and 26 seconds of man up. Not a good quarter for us but only down 3. Need a goal on this EMO when the 4th starts.
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Q4
Zero shots. 15th turnover. Total fail to start.
(Women up 6-4, 3rd.)
Had a shot get stopped by Jays, then Hopkins is able to score on the other end. Won the FO initially but we did get it back. Even so, down 12-8 with under 10 to go. Need to get explosive soon or it's over.
Good start! Tiernan again. 12-9.
Ugh. Lost the FO again. Can't go on a quick run without the FO. 6 in a row for Hopkins. Pederson with a huge body check from a standing still position, lol. Got the ball. Need goals now!
Nope. No shots, put the ball on the ground again. Hopkins just came down and scored except they had just called a TO before the shot. Still, their ball and 3 goal lead.
(And the women are now 6-6. Peachy.)
Nice save by Taylor, we got downfield quickly and had a close shot that was also stuffed. Back to Hopkins, they score. Hunter was screened. 13-9, 5:34 to go. Not impossible but need a big run of FOs to have a chance. FO battle right now and...nope.
BTB pass. Quick stick goal. Man. 14-9. We have the ball but...yeah.
Ronda long goal, 14-10. 4 minutes. But lost the FO AGAIN!
Down to 2 minutes left, M pressing, open goal, JHU goal 15-10.
(And the women are down 7-6 in the 4th.)
Man up bounce shot goal. Announcer was talking about "Have to score. Have to!" Even though he had called the previous goal the dagger. Won the faceoff, but missed the bounce shot here. Anyway, 15-11. TO. I think we backed up the shot.
At least we're firing off shots and backup up the shot but nothing is going in. Hopkins finally knocked one down. 20 seconds and running out the clock.
15-11 final. Hopkins.
Just turned it on. TO on last possession 7-8 at the half.
Badly in need of some quick scores!
And the women went from up 6-4 to losing 8-6.
Sad trombone sound.
As I now stream and have You Tube TV with ESPN U included I have taken in a few Mens and Womens LaCrosse matches (actually started last year with the win to the FINAL 4 in Mens) and I must say this is a great sport to watch.
Although still learning the strategies and rules involved it is high scoring, lots of movement and the games are fast paced.
Great to see both programs (and Womens Field Hockey) as often as I am and suggest setting your DVR!